Spazzastic

Any of you who have done 3+ Ironman's notice that when you are in the last 4 weeks you get clumsy and spastic? I sure do. I've decided that what's happening is your body only knows how to swim, bike and run, and so anything else you attempt (like eating, for example) is no longer an "autopilot" activity, and your neuromuscular system spazzes out on you.

Let's see--last week I just dropped spaghetti and meatballs (but hey, my kitchen floor is clean so no worries), I've stubbed several toes in the last few days, last night I let some nachos slip off the plate onto the floor, yesterday I lifted something oddly and messed up some erector spinae muscles, and this morning, I decided to do this shoulder stretch that I haven't done in several months:




















Well, I've always had no problems doing it as shown above, but when I switch arms and I put my right arm behind my back, it's always a bit tight in the deltoids. I did it anyway (I can grab fingers together), it felt just fine, but then a few minutes later my deltoid starts to hurt. I'm like fuck, I wanted to swim like 3600 yards today. I worked on the trigger points, and it was raining early this morning, so I put the kibosh on riding CF to the outdoor pool (crap--I had wanted to get 6 days straight of biking), and headed to the Y. I swam very gingerly, and got psyched to swim 2,000 yards straight. Well, after 800 yards, my shoulder said nope, so I ended up only swimming 3,000 yards (still not bad).

I ran into my friend Jamie, and he swam for like 15 minutes, and then we both got out and talked for about an hour on deck! We always chat it up since we don't see one another very often. I then drove home and dumped my swim stuff and then drove to my mechanic to drop my car for some routine stuff, and then I ran home--it took about 25 minutes (got rained on a teensy bit). Work, work, work, work on the shoulder some more (it's getting better--should be fine for Friday's 5,000 yard workout), hope the rain stops, it does, my car is done, and I go run 20 minutes out and back from home and then run back to pick up my car.

And I'm thinking what else will I get spastic and klutzy with? I'm genuinely afraid of power tools at this point, and have no plans to cook anything requiring my big chef's knife! I know I need to be careful around this time before an Ironman, but somehow I always end up doing something to myself.

Other than that, I feel really good today--I know I finally replenished my glycogen stores, due to eating continuously yesterday, and I only worked out for a little over 2 hours today.

Tomorrow I only have to run 2 hours and maybe do some strength work. I'm already into my run taper, and I'm happy about it and also sad. Once you knock out some solid 2:15 and 2:30 runs, it makes you feel pretty invincible. I could run 2:15 tomorrow--it will depend on whether it's raining in the morning and I have to run on the dreadmill or not. 2:15 wouldn't hurt me a bit, and if the weather is good, I'll go to Waterfall Glen and do it.

In addition to the spasticity, now is when I almost get sad because the big training will be ending soon. I mean, I'm so fucking tired from it it seems like I should want to stop, but then I don't want to, and while I do enjoy the race, sometimes I'd just rather train. Does that make sense?

Oh well, it's all a pretty normal part of the process. I've done this so many times, I laugh at the fact that the same things happen over and over and over. Deja fucking vu.